


Day Off

by joyeusenoelle



Category: Chuck (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-03
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 19:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1561742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joyeusenoelle/pseuds/joyeusenoelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Devon finally has a day off, so he and Ellie have a whole day of fun planned - except for one little stop at the Buy More...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day Off

**Author's Note:**

  * For [slytheringurrl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytheringurrl/gifts).



From the next room, in almost the same instant, there was a snapping sound like a dry branch breaking, a splattering, and a heavy thud. As the motor that had provided background noise for the last thirty seconds or so died down, Eleanor Bartowski-Woodcomb heard her husband say, “That… is not awesome.”

Ellie looked into the room.

Half of the kitchen was covered in green sludge, the remains of what had been Devon’s morning wheatgrass smoothie. Devon himself was likewise painted in front from tip to toe. At his feet lay a large shard of glass, separated, apparently, from its parent the blender bowl mid-blend.

As Devon looked up and caught Ellie’s gaze, he grinned. “Guess we’re going to have to add an extra stop, babe.”

After Devon changed clothes, they packed Clara into the car, along with some necessary accoutrements, and headed off. “We don’t have to spend your day off getting a new blender,” Ellie protested. “Clara and I could pick one up tomorrow—”

Devon glanced over from the driver’s seat. “My morning smoothie is what keeps me going during my shift,” he said. “I can’t be an awesome doctor without an awesome colon. Besides, it’ll only take us a couple of minutes. We’ll get a greenshirt to grab one for us and be on our way.”

Ellie sighed. This was the first day Devon had had off in two and a half weeks, and they’d had a full day planned. But fifteen minutes wouldn’t _really_ upset the schedule one way or another. “Okay,” she said, finally. “In and out. No problem.”

“That’s the spirit!” Devon said, and turned the car into the Buy More’s parking lot.

Inside, the Buy More had the typical mid-morning smattering of customers, but as Ellie looked around, she could only spot a single green-shirted floor employee, desperately working her way through a checkout line about a dozen people long — and the slightly classier uniform of a Nerd Herder wasn’t anywhere to be seen, either. Several of the customers were asking for help out loud, but no one was around to lend a hand.

“This seems strange,” Devon said, his hand tight on Clara’s bassinet as he looked around.

Ellie nodded. “We…” She paused, and then sighed again. “We really should find out what’s going on, shouldn’t we?”

“What we should do is find Morgan,” Devon said, and they made their way to the manager’s office.

It was both locked and darkened. “You’re not the first to try,” a woman said from a nearby aisle. She was clearly not an employee, and just as clearly not amused at the store’s lack of organization.

Ellie let go of the bassinet and dug her phone out of her purse. “Let me give Morgan a call. Maybe there’s been an emergency.”

The phone rang four times; then the line clicked. “Hello?”

“Morgan!” Ellie said. “What are you—”

“Heh, just kidding! This is Morgan’s voice mail. Man, that never gets old. Anyway, leave your message at the beep!”

“Morgan, the store is in chaos. Where are you? Where’s my brother? Call me back.” Ellie ended the call and looked over at Devon. “No employees, no Morgan… what’s going on?”

Devon offered the bassinet to her. “Hold this. I’ll call Big Mike.”

“You have Mike’s telephone number?” She took the handle and looked skeptically at her husband.

“It never hurts to be prepared, babe.” He put the phone to his ear. “Mike! It’s Devon Woodcomb. What’s up? … Yeah, I understand. Me too!” He looked up at Ellie. “On a boat on a lake? You’re getting great recep— Yeah, fishing is a great way to relax. I agree. Listen, though, there’s a problem at the Buy More. … Yeah, we’ve called Morgan but there’s no response. … No, I don’t know where Chuck is either. … Well, okay then. I guess we’ll—”

Devon looked at the phone and shrugged. “I guess he’s coming down. It’s his day off too!”

Ellie groaned. “So _nobody_ is here to deal with this mess?”

“Listen, babe, this really isn’t our responsibility—”

“No,” Ellie said, “but it _is_ Morgan’s and Chuck’s, and they’re our family.” She looked Devon in the eye. “You know that if we were in trouble, they’d go to the ends of the earth to make it right.”

“Yeah, of course.”

Clara chose that moment to wake up.

“Oh, honey, it’s okay,” Ellie said, plucking Clara from the bassinet and rocking her gently. “Devon, can we get her into the home theater room so she can have some quiet?”

“You got it, babe. I’ll make sure everyone clears out.” Together, they started moving toward the back of the store.

Ellie heard the voice she’d dreaded as they passed the Nerd Herd desk. “Eleanor!”

She counted to three and then turned around. “Lester, Jeff.”

“We are _so glad_ to see you, Eleanor. Listen, your brother has been… well, I don’t know how to put this delicately. He is in dereliction of his duty. Someone has to man — I’m sorry, _person_ — the Nerd Herd desk, and Charles just hasn’t been stepping up today.”

“Where is everybody? I thought Chuck and Morgan worked today.”

“As did we all, Eleanor, as did we all.” Lester put his hand on her shoulder; she tried not to shudder. “And since both Jeffrey and I have other tasks—”

“We’re seeing who can build the tallest pile of back-stock on the loading docks,” Jeff chimed in.

“Not _now_ , Jeffrey!” Lester hissed. He turned back to Ellie. “Seeing as you are Chuck’s next of kin, well, we would appreciate it if you would cover his station while we attended to our own duties.”

“What?” Ellie said, pulling back. “I can’t—”

“Sure you can! The Nerd Herd desk is in the Bartowski blood, Eleanor.” Lester and Jeff were already fading toward the back of the store. “Now get in there and do Chuck’s job! You wouldn’t want corporate to know that Chuck had left the desk empty, would you?”

Ellie opened her mouth, then closed it again. She seemed to have run out of things to say.

Devon lifted Clara out of her arms and set her back down in the bassinet. “You did say that we have to help Chuck and Morgan out.”

“I did say that, didn’t I.”

“Don’t worry, babe. I’ll get Clara to the home theater room and figure out what’s going on.”

“Devon, I can’t run the Nerd Herd desk.”

“Just think of it like running intake at the clinic. It’s only for a couple minutes.” He started walking toward the back of the store. “You’re gonna do awesome!”

Twenty minutes later, Ellie was not doing awesome. “Yes, I’ll be happy to file your computer for the Nerd Herd to look at. Just fill out this slip—”

“You’re not going to look at it now?” the man on the other side of the desk asked, just like the two dozen other people she’d tried to help.

“No, sir, I’m not qualified—”

“Who the hell gave you a job here, then?”

She wanted to smack the snide look off his face. Instead, she said, “All of the Nerd Herders are otherwise occupied. I’ll be happy to give your laptop to them when they return.”

“Forget it,” the man said, turning away. “Can’t believe they let someone that dumb work here.”

“ _Excuse me_ ,” Ellie said, standing up from the chair. “I _do not_ work here. I am here doing a favor for my brother, who is God-knows-where doing God-knows-what while he’s supposed to be at work. But frankly, if this is the kind of smug, overbearing crap he has to deal with every day, I’m _not surprised_ that he blew off work. I would too! I do, however, know that he’s the best in the business at repairing computers, so if you want your laptop fixed, _I am the person to talk to_ , and I will make sure he gets it. And if you aren’t willing to fill out that slip and leave your laptop with me, then _get the hell out of my store_.”

The line had gone silent, and the man stood there staring at her. Ellie suddenly realized that her face was flushed and her hands were balled into fists, and she quickly started flexing her fingers to release some of that tension.

“Son,” said a baritone voice from behind her, “get your ass up to this desk and fill out the damn form.”

“Mike,” she breathed, and turned to see Big Mike smiling at her.

“Well said,” he said in a low voice, “but we really can’t have volunteers runnin’ the store. You know where your brother and Morgan are?”

“No idea,” Ellie said.

“Well, you get on the horn and see if you can’t track ‘em down. I’ll take care of this crowd.” Mike picked up the intercom microphone and bellowed into it. “Any of you numbskulls aren’t at your posts in thirty seconds, you don’t work here anymore.” Then he took Ellie’s place at the Nerd Herd desk, swapping smoothly from annoyance to beaming at the crowd. “Now step on up, folks, we’ll get you taken care of.”

Ellie sank into a crouch at the back of the enclosure and pulled out her phone. She dialed Morgan’s number again. Three rings, then his voice: “You’ve reached Morgan, please leave a message.”

Then silence.

“Morgan?” she asked.

“Oh, hey, Ellie,” Morgan said. She could hear something in the background - gunfire? “What’s up? I’m kind of in the middle of something right now—”

“Morgan, have you seen my brother?”

“Yeah, he’s right here, but he’s kind of tied down. He, um. He’s got this awesome kill streak going in Call of Duty, you know, and, heh, I know you don’t want to interrupt a man when he’s in the zone.”

Call of Duty. Sure.

Ellie sighed. “You’re not going to give him the phone, are you?”

“Sorry, El, no can do. I’m pretty sure I’d wind up dead if I distracted him right now.”

“Fine. You need to call Big Mike as soon as you can. And you and Chuck owe me one for today.”

“You got it, Ellie. Hey, while you’re on the phone—”

“Goodbye, Morgan.”

“Right, sure. Bye!”

She slid the phone back into her handbag as Devon walked up. “I see Mike found you,” he said, quietly. “Let’s get out of here before anything else happens.”

Ellie nodded and stood up, taking Clara’s bassinet from Devon and straightening her shirt. As she watched, greenshirts and Nerd Herders came flooding through the store, including Lester. The urge to strangle him where he stood was exceptionally strong.

“Yes, let’s go,” Ellie said, using her free hand to grab Devon’s. “Right now.”

*****

_Morgan hung up the phone. “Man, Ellie did not sound happy with you.”_

_Chuck looked over his shoulder. “What did she say?”_

_“Just that you should call Big Mike back. But she sounded pretty pissed.”_

_“She’s supposed to be out with Awesome today.”_

_“I know! What could have—”_

_A bullet smacked into the concrete in the opposite wall. On the far side of Morgan, Casey growled. “Focus, Bartowski.”_

_“Sorry, sorry.” Chuck fired a tranq dart into the lead thug’s chest; he went down surprisingly quickly. “Nothing’s more important than the mission. Right.”_


End file.
